Casual Game Friday: Grow Island

Today's game is Grow Island. The premise of the game is to click the objects at the bottom of the screen in the right order to "grow" your island to its fullest potential. Each object can grow a certain number of times or levels, and you need to figure out which objects have lots of levels, and which ones have fewer, which are the ones you need to save for last.

I liked the animations in this game; they're pretty cute. And the sound effects when you figure something out are quite gratifying. Over at eyemaze.com there's a whole series of "Grow" games. So if you like this one, there's more to play. But start with this one first, because I like it the best.

Play Grow Island!

Need a hint?

Book Report for April

We've got a mix of NY Times bestsellers, Young Adult, and even a graphic novel this month. Some of you are bound to have read some of them before.

Atonement by Ian McEwan
This book begins in Great Britain before the second World War started, and the plot progresses into that war time period. The main plot in this book didn't move me as much as his descriptions of World War II. It's about a young dramatic girl who destroys someone's life by falsely accusing them of rape. She was young and naive at the time, and didn't understand really what she was doing. That plot line was interesting, but what I remember most from the book is the story of the man she accused. His story starts during the war when the retreat for Dunkirk happens. The descriptions of war are very compelling. It was messy, dirty, horrific, and surreal, and the author describes it well with out being completely overwhelming. It's got sex and violence, but not in a gratuitous way, more in a real life way. Good book.

Leven Thumps and the Eyes of Want by Obert Skye
I actually had to get this through inter-library loan. My library had the first two in the series, but for some reason didn't have the third one. I think I enjoyed this one the most out of the series, as far as plot goes. There wasn't much character development to do since it's already been done in the previous books.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki
I really enjoy Miyazaki's film work like Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro, so when I heard he wrote a graphic novel (i.e. comic book for those worried how that sounds...) I wanted to read it. I wasn't disappointed at all. He wrote an epic story that inspired. The only hard part was that it was originally in Japanese, and they couldn't re-do where all the speech bubbles and frames are. It's in English, but you have to read it back to front, right to left. But once I got the hang of it, I didn't even notice it anymore.

I got the movie from the library, but didn't like it as much. I thought it was one of the poorer Miyazaki films, but maybe that's because I was hoping for it to be like the books, a dangerous hope to have.

Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones
You know, I just like Diana Wynne Jones. She writes good books. Not earth-shaking or anything, but I like them.

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
This one's a Newbery Award winner, and since I would like to read all Newbery Award books eventually, I got this one. I guess I shouldn't be, but I'm still surprised by how poignant a children's book can be to an adult. I liked this book in part because it was good, and the other part because it was set in the Chesapeake bay, where we would visit my great-grandfather. The talk about crabbing brought back memories of shelling and then yummy crab-cakes afterwards.

The Truthsayers Apprentice by Deborah Christian
This is a bona-fide nerdy fantasy book, and I unashamedly profess that it was just what I needed. I read this while Lindsay was sick, and I was sick, so it was a nice distraction. It was also pretty good.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
This one's for book club this month. It's another bestseller. For some reason I never read bestsellers. This book is set in the circus life during the Depression era. The author is a good story teller, and you never really want to put the book down because of it. It's also got a happy ending, which I appreciate getting every once in a while from that type of book. It's got some sex in it though.

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
This is a retelling of a Grimm fairy tale, which I always thought were fun. She has smooth story telling skills, which makes for an easy read, but still quite entertaining. She puts enough humanity into the characters where you don't really feel like you're reading about caricatured fairy tale figures. This book I can recommend to anyone.

Until next month!

Exciting Milestones

Lindsay has reached another milestone in her life. And we're very proud of this one. She can now climb out of her crib, fall, and crash on the floor! Which brought us to another milestone: lowering the crib mattress as low as it can go! And also moving all objects away from her crib which could be used as stepping stools for escape.

She's too smart for her own good. Or at least pretty intelligent, but not enough to see all the repercussions of her endeavors.

Casual Game Friday: Magic Pen

A few weeks ago Peter wanted me to do a game called Crayon Physics. It looked really cool, but unfortunately it was only downloadable, so I didn't want to use it on Casual Game Friday because that's not very accessible. But then I found a similar game but playable in a browser. And that's our game today: Magic Pen.

Magic Pen is a physics based game where you draw shapes with your mouse. Those shapes manipulate the ball in order to move it to the goal, a flag. You can draw circles by holding down the left mouse button, or other shapes by just drawing them. There's also a couple special things you can use: hinges and pins. They make whatever shape you draw stick to where you originally drew it. It's a little more involved than some of the other games I've posted, so I'd recommend doing the little tutorial they have.

The look of the game is so fun, though. It looks like a team of third graders helped design the game. It makes for a lighthearted mood while playing. So get out your kid mentality that likes crayons, and keep your adult smarts on hand to...

Play Magic Pen!

Thank You, Thank You

It's been a long, hard week, so I'm going to look on the positive side and do a thankful list. I'd actually like to complain about it, but I've done enough of that. Maybe I'll be able to fit the pessimism in somehow...

1. I'm thankful for my hardwood floors. Yes, they are old, warped, and scratched, but you really can't tell at first glance. They make the constant clean-up after Lindsay so, so much easier.

2. I'm thankful that we have two cars. Even together they're not worth much, have hail scars, and match, they do an awesome job of getting us where we need to go. I can go places during the day when Peter is at school, and I know that's a great luxury.

3. I'm thankful for a pretty normal family. Yeah, we're all a little warped and scratched, too, but I grew up knowing I was loved and wanted.

4. I'm thankful that Lindsay is a good kid. When she was sick last week she behaved very badly. She was constantly on my nerves. It made me appreciate how good she really is.

5. I'm thankful Peter is finishing up law school! It's been a long road, but short at the same time. Now he'll get to start doing what he loves doing, and make money doing it! Er, I mean, after he takes the bar...

6. I'm thankful it's warm outside. Lindsay and I get to go out and play whenever we want to.

7. I'm thankful for encouragement I've received from friends and family. I'm such a troubleshooter against myself trying to fix my problems, and also relegating myself as unsuccessful. I really latch on to positive things that people say to me because it keeps my perspective a little balanced.

8. I'm thankful for the bag of marshmallows sitting next to me. I really needed you tonight, Bag of Marshmallows. Also, you've just helped me be able to spell 'marshmallow', when I thought it should be 'marshmellow'.

9. I'm thankful for the public library. Especially the one here where I can put holds on books online, and they will magically be delivered to my branch that's really close to my home.

10. I'm thankful Lindsay is asleep right now so I could write this blog post uninterrupted and undisturbed. And you should be thankful for that, too!

Clever

From Instapundit:

Casual Game Friday: Filler

Some of you have asked how I've found all these games. Well, I've always liked little internet games, especially when I had a desk job for a while answering phones in Utah. I've kept up with a few internet games sites, like AddictingGames, JayIsGames, the MSN Games site. I'll often find little games on Digg, too. So the games I'm familiar with have accumulated, and I'm not even close to running out of ideas for Casual Game Friday.

I first found this game called Filler at AddictingGames. Your goal is to fill up a certain percentage of the screen with bubbles that you create by clicking and holding the left mouse button. The catch is that there's other bouncing balls that will pop your bubble if it gets hit while it's expanding. After you make your bubble with out getting hit by the bouncing balls, gravity takes effect and it falls to the bottom of the screen. The bubbles you've made will also bounce off of each other and settle, sometimes ruining the place where you want to put the next bubble, because there's a bouncing ball there. The game has a simple concept, easy to learn, and pretty fun for a little Friday afternoon distraction.

Play Filler!